How long before Laying Workers emerge?

[BernardBlack]

How long would a hive usually be Queenless for, before Laying Workers emerge?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Laying workers start when brood disappears. So at around three weeks some workers will start laying and their number increases as time goes by

 

[oliver90owner]

If you mean emerge as in exiting the pupation stage, they are already there all of the time. It is the queen pheromones that keep the potentially laying workers under reasonable control.

 

[BernardBlack]

If you mean emerge as in exiting the pupation stage, they are already there all of the time. It is the queen pheromones that keep the potentially laying workers under reasonable control.

If say, the Queen was killed by accident... how long after that would you start seeing LW eggs?

 

[pargyle]

If say, the Queen was killed by accident... how long after that would you start seeing LW eggs?

If there are eggs or even brood in there they will make queen cells before the laying workers really start to lay ... normally only get laying workers when they are hopelessly queenless ...

 

[masterBK]

Brood pheromone is much stronger at inhibiting workers from laying than queen pheromones. So three weeks or more after queen gone is when the problem usually appears. In Apideas etc which are set up initially without any brood, evidence of laying workers appears within days of a queen going "missing"

 

[Antipodes]

Brood pheromone is much stronger at inhibiting workers from laying than queen pheromones. So three weeks or more after queen gone is when the problem usually appears. In Apideas etc which are set up initially without any brood, evidence of laying workers appears within days of a queen going "missing"

Yeah...very quick in broodless Apideas.

 

[BernardBlack]

Originally this was just sort of a hypothetical question, but checked today and new queen has started to lay, thankfully.

I had left a Q cell but was worried I had squished/damaged her, and was dreading in case the hive was now queenless.

Now, the trouble is... finding the new Queen to mark her. I think that is the most frustrating task with beekeeping!